Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Device-Making Equipment

Jackson, MS - An Ohio man pleaded guilty last week to illegally possessing credit card encoding devices.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on the morning of April 28, 2024, Sean Matthew Langston, Jr., 33, of Columbus, Ohio, was arrested in Rankin County following a traffic stop wherein he and his co-defendant, John Carleton Johnson, Jr., were found to be in possession of approximately 322 gift cards, seventeen reencoded instruments containing stolen bank card data, and two magstripe encoding devices. Langston and Johnson could be seen on CCTV footage at various retail stores throughout the Jackson metropolitan area purchasing gift cads with known cloned instruments.

Langston pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession, production, or trafficking in device-making equipment with intent to defraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14, 2026, and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Langston and Johnson on February 20, 2025. Johnson pleaded guilty on June 30, 2025, and was sentenced to serve two years in federal prison and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 on November 3, 2025.

United States Attorney Baxter Kruger of the Southern District of Mississippi, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Patrick Davis, and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch made the announcement.

The United States Secret Service, Mississippi Attorney General's Office, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are investigating the case through their partnership in the Cyber Fraud Task Force with assistance from the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Flowood Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly T. Purdie is prosecuting the case.